Were You A Fat Child?

I was always the biggest kid in my class, and not in height. They calle din "husky" bacl then. Big at birth, big baby, big grade schooler, big in high school, big all the way to my final semester in College. 250 was my max. Then I got serious about it and have kept it mostly off for 13 years now.

Got back up to 208 and got scared, back dwon to 198 now and working to get to 175. Swim, bike, run, baby!

Just curious as to how many people here started out life as an overweight child. Did you?

I was a chubby kid, but lost it all by age 12 and stayed at goal weight until after I had my last baby 13 years ago. I don't recall doing anything exrtraordinary to lose my early childhood "baby fat"....maybe I just grew out of it, I don't know. But I DO remember the schoolyard teasing..."Fatty Fatty Two By Four, can't get through the bathroom door"....wow, kids sure can be mean.

I was very very skinny as a kid. And I got teased very badly too.

Yes, I was a "fat child". I was recently looking at pictures of myself as a child, and it seems that I've been overweight since a very young age.

One of my earliest memories is of the pediatrition telling my mother (in front of me) that I was already "obese", and I needed to lose weight. I never listened.

I weighed 10 pounds when I was born. Ive always been overweight.

I was bigger than other kids my age. I've always been overweight; since I was about 8.

My parents said that I looked like ET pretty much from when I was born till I was in grade school. But they said that even though I looked like I weighed less than the other kids, people would pick me up expecting a little cloud-like bundle of joy like other babies and be quite surprised. :laugh:

But when I hit middle school, I remember being fairly large. I don't know if this was just my perception as kids that age are really suddenly dealing with a lot of self-esteem issues—but I was a short kid and I wore a lot of the same size clothes as my mom at that age, and she wasn't skinny either. I evened out a lot by high school though, and didn't really have any issues with my weight until college, where the food court and bad choices really took a toll. Been working at it ever since.

My whole family has really struggled with their weight as teenagers, evened out a little, and then again in adulthood. *shrug* I honestly think some of it is just hereditary. I'm also finding out that even though we're all short, it doesn't matter if we weigh 140 or 120, we still kind of look the same. Hoping that building a significant amount of muscle will change that for me, though, as I was NEVER athletic, and I bet that's part of the problem!

Fat is relative. Because I was the only non-jock is a family of jocks and the only one wearing husky size, I was constantly told I was fat. I was never good enough. Oldest of 4 boys with one older sister. I spent my childhood trying to avoid being noticed.
Nothing is more deflating when you finally hit a ball over the fence and dad says "it's about time. You should have done that years ago." (like my younger athletic brothers.)
My point? When I actually did get fat I didn't notice because I had been taught from a child that I was fat. My body was just catching up with my self image.
Later, when I developed bulimia and got down to 155 pounds, I still thought I was fat. It didn't matter that I was using a regular bandana for a belt because a leather belt dud into the points of my pelvic bones.
As a father of two teens I am very conscious of body image and helping my kids have honest body images.No false praise or harsh words either. My kids go to the gym with me when they don't have too much homework.
My biggest concern is that when I get to my goal weight is that I will get obsessed again and start thinking lower is better. But this time I have support that I did not have those decades ago. Between my wife and a doctor that actually cares, my goals are being set reasonably. The metric trackers here help provide an object reference point for balance as well.
Childhood scars are not as easy to get over as those who have never struggled think they are. I am approaching 52 and some times things still trigger old engrained responses that I know are irrational.
The best I can do i make sure I don't inflict those same scars on my own children. So far I have succeeded. :bigsmile:

Thin as a stick until I was11 years old then I got fluffy

I was a phat kid! I gained weight around 1st or 2nd grade and haven't lost it, yet! lol! Interesting enough, I shaped out, so I was a big girl with nice curves. After a while I stopped getting teased. That probably ended in middle school. (At least it wasn't done to my face!) So yeah - right here! I'll be 30 in December and can literally say that I've been phat almost all of my life.

As a child, I wasn't particularly fat but I wasn't thin either. I wore regular sizes, just on the upper end. The struggle didn't really start until I started believing the people who thought I should weigh less than I did. That's when the "diet until I lose something, then eat again and gain back everything plus" cycle.

I ain't doing that again, honey.